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Carbon Creek
'' |image= |series= |production=40358- |producer(s)= |story=Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and Dan O'Shannon |script=Chris Black |director=James Contner |imdbref=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0572186 |guests=J. Paul Boehmer as Mestral, Ann Cusack as Maggie, Hank Harris as Jack, Michael Krawic as Stron, David Selburg as Vulcan Captain, Clay Wilcox as Billy, Ron Marasco as Vulcan Captain Tellus and Paul Hayes as Businessman |previous_production=Shockwave Part 1 |next_production=Minefield |episode=ENT S02E02 |airdate=25 September 2002 |previous_release=Shockwave Part 2 |next_release=Minefield |story_date(s)=12 April 2152 / October, 1957 – January, 1958 |previous_story=Shockwave Part 2 |next_story=Minefield }} =Summary= Captain Archer, Commander Tucker and Sub-Commander T'Pol are having dinner in honor of the first anniversary of T'Pol's assignment aboard Enterprise. During conversation, Archer asks why T'Pol travelled to Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, before she joined Enterprise. T'Pol reveals that, contrary to human belief that the first contact between humans and Vulcans occurred in the mid-2060s (as seen in Star Trek First Contact), it actually occurred a century earlier. Tucker and Archer react incredulously to this claim, so T'Pol offers to tell them her great-grandmother's story. T'Mir is a member of a four-Vulcan crew studying Earth from orbit in 1957, when they witness the launch of Sputnik, the planet's first artificial satellite. A mishap with their impulse manifold forces the craft to crash-land in Pennsylvania. The captain is killed and T'Mir, as second-in-command, takes charge. A distress signal is sent, but after more than two weeks no reply is received. One of the Vulcans, Mestral, chooses to enter a nearby town, and T'Mir reluctantly accompanies him. Over the next few months the Vulcans successfully integrate themselves with the townsfolk, renting an apartment from Maggie, a tavern owner. One day there is a firedamp explosion in the mine; Mestral helps rescue a dozen trapped miners by covertly blasting through a rock wall with a phaser. Eventually, a Vulcan vessel signals that it will arrive to retrieve the crew. Before leaving, T'Mir learns a human lesson in compassion, and travels by train to Pittsburgh where she "sells" the rights to Velcro. The money she receives is more than enough to pay for the college education of their landlady's son. As the Vulcan ship nears, Mestral announces that he intends to stay on Earth and observe the great advances he knows lie ahead. T'Mir reluctantly agrees, and tells the rescuers that Mestral had died along with the captain. The story ends with Archer and Tucker not sure whether to believe T'Pol's story, but after the meal, T'Pol returns to her quarters and retrieves T'Mir's 1950s-era handbag. =Errors and Explanations= Nit Central # Sparrow47 on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 7:18 pm: Eh, it wasn't that bad. And it ended with a variation on the "it was all a dream" anti-nit by having T'Pol do her "it was all a story" bit. Of course, if the incident was so well-documented, couldn't Archer or Trip simply look it up? It may have been heavily classified! # One of the Vulcans winds up working at a mine. And they were supposed to avoid detection? If there's an accident, that green blood is going to look mighty suspicious. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 3:26 am: True, but they need money and have limited options. # So if all the Vulcans were supposedly "buisness associates," how did they pass off staying in Carbon Creek? Additionally, since they supposedly came in a vehicle, one of them would supposedly have a driver's license. So I wonder what they did if the townsfolk asked to see either thing? LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 3:26 am: Would they need one to work as a miner or plumber? Aren’t there ways of getting important documents in cases of theft, loss, or even amnesia? Also, we know that some devices from their ship, like their communicator and particle weapons, were still intact after the crash. Is it possible that there were printing or rendering devices for making fakes? # So back in Broken Bow, T'Pol noted that Vulcans just don't eat meat, period. Even given the choice of killing the deer for food sparks an argument amongst the Vulcans here. So, I'm having a hard time believing that they managed so many months in 1950s Carbon Creek without eating it once! Darth Sarcasm on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 7:29 pm: Actually, I think it's Archer who says he knows Vulcans are vegetarians in Broken Bow. But I think they would have eaten meat if they had to. # So, the Vulcan who played the pool game seemed to pick up rather quickly on the concept of the eight ball, especially given that he had never seen the game played before! Brian Fitzgerald on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 7:28 pm: The concept is simply hit all of your balls into one of the pockets, if you make a shot you get another one if you miss the other guy gets to shoot. The skill is not from knowing the ins and outs of the rules it is from understanding the geomatry of angles to make the balls roll where you want them to. # SMT on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 7:27 pm: If the Vulcan survey vessel came to study Sputnik 1, they must have detected the satellite somehow to know it was there to study. That implies that Vulcans were already there. This isn't necessarily a nit-they could have had an automated probe orbiting-but it just seemed a bit odd to me. They could have decided to check on Earth to evaluate the long term after effects of World War 2. (And before anyone claims they couldn’t know about what was happening on Earth without sending a ship first, they are probably advanced enough to posses subspace sensors capable of scanning that far!) # After their emergency rations ran out within a week, the Vulcan survivors spent five days in the wilderness without food. Three points. One, why did they only have emergency rations? Shouldn't the ship have been stocked with food-or do they have replicators? LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 3:26 am: I think it’s unlikely that they had replicators. For one, as you point out, they didn’t have them in Kirk’s time. Second, if they did, they could’ve replicated the parts to make the subspace transceiver to call Vulcan. I also find it hard to believe that if they had replicators in 1957, that they’d need to tractor the shuttle out of the comet’s crevice in Breaking the Ice, rather than beaming Reed and Travis out, since transporters and replicators use the same technology, and transporters came first, and even if there was one on the ship, it might’ve been destroyed in the crash.Seniram 16:25, October 11, 2018 (UTC) In addition, any additional food stocks could have been damaged/destroyed when the ship crashed. # If so, why did they take so long to filter into Federation society, so that Kirk's Enterprise apparently didn't have them? The Vulcans probably wanted Humanity to develop their own versions, which probably took many decades of research. # Vulcans are supposed to be able to go a long time without food, aren't they? That could be why they waited so long before heading into town. # Why weren't they spending the week while they still had rations, and the five days afterward, studying local plants for nutritional value? There may not have been sufficient plant life available. # There's a cave-in in the mine. Men are working desperately to free trapped miners. How can Mestral wander through the mine, passing several of these people, without having them tell him to pull his head out of the clouds and help the rescue effort? LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 3:26 am: For all they know, maybe he’s relaying equipment from different locations in the mine. # PaulG on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 7:43 pm:One of the Vulcans mentions fish sticks as part of the human culture they have experienced. Are they eating them? Isn’t that meat? LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 3:26 am: : It’s possible that Mestral is eating them, and Stron is making an indirect criticism, since Mestral doesn’t seem to mind abandoning certain Vulcan beliefs, but Stron thinks eating meat is "savagery." Keng on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 5:49 am: Not if you were a Catholic in the 50's. # I remember an ALF episode where our favorite alien wanted to raise some money. So he pillaged his damaged starship for gold and platinum used in the construction. You would think that the Vulcan craft would have some standard valuable metals that could be plundered. A whole lot easier to sell gold than it is to sell a new invention. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 3:26 am: That’s EXACTLY what I thought she would do! I remember reading about a guy who stripped down computers for their metals, like gold, and I thought that’s what T’ Mir was going to do.Seniram 16:25, October 11, 2018 (UTC) Too risky – what is T’Mir expected to say when someone inevitably asks where she got such a quantity of precious metal from? # And whatever happened to that wrecked Vulcan ship anyway? LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 3:26 am: I would’ve assumed that they tractored it out or destroyed it somehow, but then, they didn’t mention doing this, and besides, if they Vulcan rescuers did this, why would they have to meet T’Mir and Stron somewhere else where’d they’d have to travel by train? # Somebody who feels like once again posting a little mini-essay in the username box, this time on the question of whether its possible to post URLs or smiley-faces in this username box. on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 7:55 pm: Nobody reported clothes stolen from the clothesline and then later noticed the strangers wearing the stolen clothes? Daroga on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 8:43 pm: It's the Ladyhawke method of getting clothes. It worked for Philippe the Mouse! (And also possibly Virginia and Tony in The 10th Kingdom, but we won't go into that.) # Trike on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 12:28 am: The high school student's attitude toward Sputnik did not mesh with comtemporary views. Most were not in awe of it, but rather afraid of it and by the shift in the balance of power it gave the Soviets. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 3:26 am: Some did, some did not. Reactions were mixed, and some were indeed in awe of it. # KAM on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 4:49 am: Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't an earlier episode (Fusion?) establish that T'Pol hardly left the Vulcan Embassy? TomM on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 5:39 am: It established that she rarely left the embassy, not necessarily that she never left it. ''' # T'Mir says 2 lifeforms (refering to the deer), but aren't trees and plants lifeforms? ''TomM on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 5:39 am:'' That's true, but the usage is not inconsistent with Trek continuity. "Lifeforms," on Trek, almost always refers to "higher animals" and often to intellegent/humanoid life.' # Since TV was a fad that ended in the 2040s how would Trip be familiar with The Twilight Zone? ''TomM on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 5:39 am: Maybe the Twilight Zone movie survived, and was recently shown in the ship's "theatre." :) Seniram 16:25, October 11, 2018 (UTC) Or he had seen it when he was younger, and tracked down surviving episodes. Category:EpisodesCategory:Enterprise